Winston Churchill once said, *It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations". And Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, *Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet*. So I decided to take their advice literal (sad, I know). Below is a collection of the most powerful and inspirational meditations that I've learned.  

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Take wandering outdoor walks; learn to enjoy your own company. All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking.

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Drink deeply from good books. There is more treasure in them than in all the loot on Treasure Island; you cannot open one without learning something new.

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If you encounter a person of rare intellect, ask them what books they read.

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Writing is the painting of the voice. Get great at presenting yourself with words and words alone and you’ll be further ahead than most.

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Invest in yourself and make every day a learning experience no matter how small. It will pay dividends.

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If you don’t like the road you’re walking, start paving a new one. On any given day, you can massively change the direction of your life. You are never too old to dream a new dream.

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Listen to music; it gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind and flight to the imagination.

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Learning to ignore things is one of the greatest paths to inner peace. Fucks should be reserved for only the most fuckworthy of situations.

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Don't trust, verify. Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

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The only thing that we need to make us happy is something to be enthusiastic about. Tie happiness to a goal, not things.

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Success is dependent on effort. Flaming enthusiasm and unwavering persistence are the qualities that most frequently makes for success.

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Pursue every project, idea, or industry that generally lights you up - regardless of how unrealistic a long term career in that field might seem. When you follow your bliss, the universe will open doors where there were only walls.

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If regular exercise could be bottled, it’d be a miracle drug. Everything in life gets better if you find the time to exercise regularly.

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Politeness and consideration for others is like investing pennies and getting dollars back. Be curious, not judgemental; ask others about themselves, but be on guard not to talk too much about yourself.

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Many false steps are made by standing still. Expecting something for nothing is the most popular form of hope; action is the foundational key to success.

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Life isn’t about finding yourself, it’s about creating yourself; you can be anything that you want to be. Life has the meaning that you give it.

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Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. You only hit what you aim at, so you better aim high. You never know what you can achieve until you try.

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Happiness isn’t secured by filling up on your heart’s desire, but by removing your desire. Don’t grieve for the things which you don’t have, but rejoice for those which you do.

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When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear. And remember, you always own the option of having no opinion.

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There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour, and if you can't laugh at yourself, you're missing the best joke of all.

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Health is our greatest possession. When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to enjoy, to love.

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Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.

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Time is our most precious resource; make the most of your youthful energy. Twenty years from now, you'll look back at photos of yourself, and recall how much possibility lay before you, and how fabulous you really looked.

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Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. It’s better to attempt to do something great and fail than do nothing and succeed.

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Don’t dwell too much on the future. The great majority of that which gives us angst never happens.

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Reconnect with your inner child. We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.

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Try to increase your joy in whatever capacity you can; enjoy the little things. Life is not a competition, it's a game. It's not about winning or losing, it's about all the fun we can have before it ends.

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(2021)